CHAPTER ELEVEN
Jess
Byron and Nadine had taken me home after we heard the news about Skeeter. Everyone kept trying to reassure me he was dead. But I knew him.
They didn’t.
The only way I’d ever be satisfied he was dead is if they showed me a picture of his dead body. That was it.
Still, I was able to sleep for a while before I had to be back over at Cayenne for my performance.
Nico was so pleased with how things had gone the night before that he’d worked a deal with Carmen where they’d ‘share’ me between Sugar and Cayenne.
I’d do a week in Cayenne and then switch for a week in Sugar.
They wanted to try it that way for a couple of months before they decided if it should be a permanent thing or not.
Then they’d decide which dancer that I’d share duties with.
They were leaning towards Madeline, though, who put on such sexy performances they made me blush.
When she was in Cayenne, I’d be in Sugar and vice versa.
Nadine and Byron hadn’t wanted me to work tonight, and Nico had said he’d understand if I wasn’t up to it. I thought the worst thing I could do was sit around and think about things. I’d rather be busy.
So, Byron had brought me to Sugar. I’d get ready here, then walk to Cayenne.
There was a back hallway that connected all the clubs, but you could only get there through the office hallways.
Nico had shown me the way and told me I should use that to go between the clubs.
He didn’t want me to just walk outside dressed in my barely there stripper outfit.
Obviously.
I’d laughed until he’d shrugged and said normally he thought it would be an excellent advertisement for the clubs.
Then he’d told me about a dancer, Candace Keys, who’d worked at Sugar a while back.
She’d been murdered. So had a patron of Cayenne who’d looked a lot like one of their other employees, Daisy.
The sheriff and Reynolds thought there was a serial killer in town, but that maybe he’d left and gone somewhere else. No more murders had occurred for a while, but Nico didn’t want to take any chances.
I’d been horrified, but I had tried not to show it. I hadn’t thought West Bay would be crime free. The bigger the city the more crime that occurred, it seemed. Still, the thought of a serial killer had never crossed my mind.
I was thinking about all of this as I walked down the back hallway where the offices were.
Carmen, Ardley, and sometimes Leo were usually the only ones there, but there was a large office with a couple of desks in it that served as a working spot for any of the Salazars when they were at Sugar and needed to work.
I was glad there was a plush carpeted runner than ran the length of the hallway. Otherwise, I’d make a ton of noise in these heels. I was heading towards the semi-secret back passageway when the sound of Byron’s deep voice made me stop. What was he doing in Carmen’s office?
I knew they were friends, and several people had dropped hints that there was more between them at one time. I’d thought all of that was over, though.
Then I remembered the way Carmen had looked at me a few times when Byron and I were together. It hadn’t looked over for her, I realized.
Was it not over for Byron, either? Had I misjudged his level of commitment to me? He’d told me he was a one-woman man and that he didn’t sleep with women he didn’t want to have a relationship with.
What if it’d been a line? I didn’t have much experience with relationships since I’d been stuck with Skeeter at the MC for so long. And something told me that relationship hadn’t taught me much at all about love.
I bit my lip. I knew I shouldn’t listen, but I was so tempted.
I creeped a bit closer to her door. It was cracked wide enough that I could see it was just the two of them in her office.
I listened.
“I gave you so many chances to change your mind,” Byron was saying. “What made you do it now?”
“Honestly? Seeing you with her. I see the way you look at her. I’ve never seen you look at anyone like that. Except for me.”
“Carmen,” Byron sounded exasperated. “For years I told you I loved you. I told you I wanted to be with you. And now that I’ve finally found someone I think I could fall in love with, you tell me that you have feelings for me after all?”
“I’m not trying to play games with you. I swear. It’s just… I don’t think I realized how deep my feelings for you run until I thought I might lose you.”
“Are you sure this isn’t just a case of not wanting someone else to have me?” He asked gently.
She walked around her desk and they hugged. It was like a knife in the heart to see how good they looked together.
“I swear that’s not it.” She looked up at him, and he brushed her hair back from her face in a shockingly intimate gesture that had me sucking in my breath.
“Then what is it?”
“I love you, Byron. I think I always have but just didn’t want to admit it. I do want to settle down. I… I could even see us getting married.”
He pulled her closer to him, and she rested her head on his chest. “I would have married you at any point over the past several years. And I will always love you…”
That was it. I couldn’t take anymore. I backed away from the door, giving it a wide berth as I continued down the hallway.
I was trying hard not to cry. I didn’t want to ruin my stage makeup right before I went out to perform.
I would just have to compartmentalize this gut punch, this betrayal of what I’d thought Byron and I had.
Lord knows I’d had to push my feelings aside hundreds of times when I danced at the MC strip club after Skeeter had been awful to me.
If I could do it then, I could do it now.
But one thing was for sure.
I’d been dead wrong about Byron St. James. He was not the man I’d thought he was.
***
I lost myself in the music. In fact, I was so wrapped up in the routine and the songs that it took me a long time to notice that Joaquin was in my direct line of sight.
On purpose.
He was staring at me, and I could feel the heat from his eyes as if it was a laser on my skin. I shivered but kept most of my focus on the performance.
No one wants to watch a stripper fall off the pole and crash to the floor. It kind of defeats the purpose of trying to be sexy.
When I looked back his way, because of course I couldn’t keep my eyes off him, he had pulled his cock out of his pants and was flagrantly stroking himself while he watched me. I couldn’t help but stare at the piercings on his very large dick and wonder what they’d feel like inside of me.
But I shouldn’t be thinking that way. I’d just been with Byron last night, and I wasn’t the kind of girl to jump from one guy to another.
At least I didn’t think I was. I hadn’t had much opportunity to do that kind of thing being stuck in the MC with Skeeter.
When I twirled around again and met his eyes, I sucked in a breath.
He had a beautiful blonde girl bent over a couch, waiting for me to look at him.
I watched, adjusting my routine so I could see what he was doing.
He gave me a sexy little smirk before thrusting into the woman, hard. She cried out in obvious pleasure.
He watched me as he fucked her. I watched him and undulated against the pole as if I was fucking it.
He pushed into her over and over while staring at me.
I unhooked my top and let my breasts bounce free as I did one of my raunchier moves that had me spreading my legs wide enough to provide a quick crotch shot before I wrapped my legs back around the pole.
He pounded into the woman, the couch moving from the strength of his thrusts.
The woman was crying out his name, screaming about how good he felt, that he was the best dick she’d ever had, and so on.
It was fiery hot to watch them.
Just as I was finishing up my routine and posing in front of the pole with my chest out and my legs spread, he doubled his efforts, fucking the woman mercilessly.
Then he let out a roar, throwing his head back as he came.
When he was finished, he pulled out, tucked himself back in his pants, and walked to the stage.
He left the woman like she meant less than nothing to him. She was lying there gasping for breath, but she had a smile on her face.
He walked to the stage, and I glanced around the room quickly. That’s when I realized that everyone had noticed the dynamic between us—they were all watching.
He reached up and put his hands on my waist, lifting me down from the stage. He pulled me close enough I could hear him. “Come with me to a room.”
I shook my head. “I can’t.”
He stilled; his dark blue eyes locked on mine. “Because of Byron?”
“Partly.”
“He’s in love with my sister. What’s the other part?”
The truth of what he said hit me hard. But I still couldn’t do it. “You just had your cock inside another woman. I don’t like that.”
“What if I just eat that pretty pussy? You don’t have to do anything to me. Just lay back and let me make you feel good.”
I was almost tempted. But I couldn’t do that to Byron. I shook my head. “Maybe another time.”
He leaned in, leaving light kisses along my shoulder and up my neck. “You have no idea what you’re missing. I could make you come for hours. Hours. Women I’ve eaten out have begged me to meet up for more. They say I’m by far the best they’ve ever had.”
I saw the truth of it in his eyes. He wasn’t just being conceited.
I put my hand on his cheek, and he leaned into my touch.
“I believe you. I really do. But even if Byron loves Carmen, it’s going to take me a while to get over him.
I’m not asking you to wait around on me.
Go have your fun. But I just can’t do it. Not tonight. Not for a while.”
Then I gave him a quick kiss on his cheek, and had the bouncer walk me through the crowd so I could go to a room to get dressed.
On the way there I was shocked to see that the woman Joaquin had fucked so brutally was letting two men take turns fucking her from behind.
She hadn’t moved from the couch, and she was screaming out in delight.
I blinked. I guessed that was why she was a member of a sex club. She really, really liked a lot of sex. This was a different world to me, and I’d lived in a motorcycle club compound for years.
I made sure and locked the door to the dressing room. I didn’t want someone to mistake this for one of the performance rooms and start trying to fuck me in front of a window or something. I felt that Cayenne was safe; I just didn’t want to risk a misunderstanding.
I was halfway through putting my clothes on when my phone buzzed. With a sad heart, I knew it probably wouldn’t be Byron. Or if it was, it would be him telling me he was with Carmen now.
I’d heard men sucked. But I just couldn’t believe it of him. All I could think was that he’d loved Carmen so long that even though he was interested in me, she would always mean more.
I sighed and picked it up. It was from Byron. But it wasn’t good. Or bad, really.
Byron: Hey. Didn’t have time to tell you goodbye. I had to fly out to Virginia to see my parents. I’m giving them an update on my plans. We’ll talk when I get back. I left a message with Nadine telling her what was going on. I’m sure she’ll come to pick you up. See you soon.
It was quick and impersonal.
Change of plans. Virginia. His parents.
I closed my eyes. He was telling them he was going to marry Carmen.